Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
War is a paradox.
It has the power to bringnations together, to inspire
heroism and sacrifice and toforge bonds of camaraderie that
will span a lifetime, but italso has the power to tear
families apart, to shattercommunities and to leave scars
that will never fully heal.
And, for those who have served,the transition back to civilian
(00:25):
life can be one of the greatestchallenges they will ever face.
This is the typical life ofmilitary veterans, a world that
is both familiar and foreign tomost of us.
It is a world that is shaped byunique experiences, values and
traditions of the military, andby the sacrifices and struggles
of those who have served, butit's also a world that is
(00:46):
constantly changing, as newgenerations of veterans confront
new challenges and newopportunities.
Thank you for joining us atSoup Sandwich.
Dig your foxhole, heat up yourMRE and spend some time with us.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Thank you for joining
us at Soup Sandwich.
My name is Brent.
I'm your main host With metoday.
I've got Krista.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Hi, nice to meet you.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
What we're going to
be doing today is we're going to
be chatting a little bit abouttransition from military service
active military service toveteran life, All the
interesting transition ups anddowns that we've experienced and
everything in between.
But before we do that, we mightas well introduce ourselves,
(01:28):
since this is the first podcastepisode, So I appreciate you
being here and listening.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Thank you for having
me.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
So number one who are
we?
So I'll start, if you don'tmind.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
How about it?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
As I said earlier, my
name is Brent.
I am a United States Navyveteran.
I served as a hospital corpsman, achieving the rank of E4,
petty officer third class, orhospital corpsman third class,
if you will.
I was active from 2010 to 2015,served about five and a half
years on active service And fromthere I went from training to
(02:08):
National Naval Medical Center,bethesda.
While I was there, i was thereduring the transition from the
namesake changed from NationalNaval Medical Center to Walter
Reed National Military MedicalCenter.
So I was there during thetransition and all the
construction and everything.
It was quite the experience.
Once I finished my two yearsthere, i left in 2012.
(02:31):
I went to Pearl Harbor, hawaii,to Naval Health Clinic, hawaii.
I served there from 2012 until2015.
While I was there, i picked upan individual augmentee
deployment to the Middle Eastwith ERSS team 11 that stands
for Expeditionary ResuscitativeSurgical System, team 11.
(02:52):
And during that time I wasessentially a mobile surgical
team.
That was me and, i believe, 12other people, and we were able
to stand up a fully operationalsurgical suite in around about
12 minutes.
It was a pretty interestingfeat to do So.
Had a lot of fun with that.
(03:13):
Returned back to Hawaii in2013,.
Excuse me, 2014.
Finished out the last year orso of my service, finally
culminating in May of 2015,where I got out and pursued
higher education.
So that's my experience.
I'm going to turn it over toKrista and see what she's got
(03:35):
for us.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Hi, i'm Krista.
I was in the Army for solid 13years.
I was a 68 whiskey or ahealthcare specialist, more
commonly known as the combatmedic.
Let's see.
First duty station was at drum,right out of basic and AIT.
From there I PCS'd to CampHumphreys, south Korea, and that
(03:57):
was a blast.
I was for a good bit of thelone medic in the brigade, just
teaching CLS class, giving shots, stealing blood, typical medic
stuff.
After that I ended up at JablamJoint Base, lewis McCord, where
I deployed to the RC Southsection of Afghanistan.
(04:18):
That was fun.
After that I PCS'd to FortLeavenworth in Kansas and became
a prison medic.
Oh, the stories I could tellfor that.
While I was there I had my son.
And after that I PCS'd again toSouth Korea.
This time I went to Young Sun,which was at the time
(04:38):
transitioning from the med-acheadquarters, along with the
South Korean headquarters beingtransitioned down to Pyong-Tek
or Camp Humphreys.
So I was there when Young Sunwas transitioning to CLS, ets'd
from the service out of YoungSun.
From there I flew to Michigan,where I have been since.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Okay, thanks for
giving us a little bit of a
background.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Not a problem.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
As I mentioned
earlier, the main topic of this
episode is going to be what ourtransition was like from active
service to the veteran lifestyle, all the difficulties and
everything included.
So for me specifically, i atfirst didn't feel like I had a
tough time.
My difficulties started when Istarted nursing school.
(05:30):
What ended up happening was Idischarged in May of 2015 and I
took a summer job while I waswaiting for school to start.
But the first week of school Iactually got word that a friend
of mine had committed suicide,became part of the 22 a day that
(05:51):
many are familiar with.
If you are not familiar withthat number 22 a day is derived
from a report that happened anumber of years ago, put out by
the Department of VeteransAffairs, in which they estimated
that the epidemic of suicide inthe military community and the
veteran community specificallyamounted to about 22 veterans
(06:15):
per day committing suicide forvarious reasons.
So obviously that is indicativeof difficulties with mental
health, not being able to getsupport or therapy and treatment
.
There was a number of differentreasons for that, but the
difficulties that I began toface with my own mental health
and everything in learningthrough therapy and treatment
(06:39):
myself was that I had put amental block in that initial
summer.
That initial three months or sobetween my discharge and
starting school seemed to benormal, and what I have come to
find out is that it wasn't.
it was a mental block that Ihad put in while I was on active
(07:01):
duty, and so what I ended upfiguring out was that I had
quite a few issues that neededto be dealt with, and my first
semester of nursing school Iactually dropped out and later
(07:24):
ended up finishing up abachelor's degree in health
administration.
So I did end up getting to thefinish line.
It took me a semester or two,longer than I had expected, but
I did get there.
During that time it was a hotmess, to say the least, and so
that's what this episode isabout is transition and what
(07:47):
that means.
And so, as most people know,when you start military service,
you go to boot camp, which inthe Navy we call it recruit
training command.
The Army probably calls itsomething else, but everybody
knows the term boot camp.
And so during boot camp, youthat's your basic training.
(08:09):
That is the basic training youlearn to be a Marine or an
airman or a soldier or a sailoror a Coast Guardsman.
That's where you go to learnthe basics, and so when they do
that, they change almosteverything about you.
It is a purposeful transitionof you as an individual civilian
(08:33):
into a team-oriented mindset onevery level that you can
imagine.
What do you think, krista?
You mean is?
that a pretty apt description.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
That is a very apt
description.
You go from being an individualto being part of one whole.
So basic.
they teach you how to get alongwith your coworkers, your
fellow service members.
They teach you how to thinklike a service member instead of
how to think like a punk highschool kid or Ignore the things
(09:09):
that don't matter and focus onthe things that do Exactly You
learn how to take orders and notquestion everything.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Absolutely, because
there comes a time where orders
might come down and if youquestion them in the moment,
You'll get hemmed up.
Well, not only that, but ifyou're downrange and you're out
there on deployment in an activecombat zone, that delay could
(09:39):
mean life and death.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Not just for you, but
for others.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Exactly, And I know
how crazy that sounds, I know
how we just went from one end ofthe spectrum to the other, but
that's the reality of it.
I mean, that's what life islike in a combat zone.
You don't know what is coming,what is around you and what
(10:04):
tomorrow is going to bring.
And here's the kicker iftomorrow even comes.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
So that is what they
mold you into.
They tear your individualismdown and build it back up into
the building blocks of you beinga building block of the team.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
And that's why, in
most cases, you will see
veterans come out and they arevery team oriented And they are
just very matter of fact anddirect in their actions because
that's what they've known forhowever many years that they've
been on active duty.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
How you learn how to
communicate.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Exactly.
Communication obviously is key.
So you learn the basics offighting.
I know we will go down thisparticular road of experiences
in boot camp and what you learnin later episodes.
You know you learn weaponshandling and you learn basic
movements and all of that.
But under all of those layersof different things, what you
(11:15):
will find is it really boilsdown to everybody is trained to
the same degree And so, as manymight know, the Marine Corps
saying every Marine a rifleman.
It doesn't matter what your MOSis.
And if you're not familiar withwhat MOS is, it is military
(11:38):
occupational service code.
So, as Krista mentioned earlier, she was 68 whiskey.
That is uniquely Army.
The Navy has similar MOS codes,but we call them NECs Go Army
beat Navy, go Navy beat Army.
And so Navy has NECs which areequivalent.
(12:02):
But regardless, thosedifferences are minute.
But we digress, sorry.
Moving back on track here, theinitial experience always will
be boot camp And that experienceis second to none and most of
us have an in carry stories fromboot camp from years ago
(12:27):
because it was such a definingmoment for us.
So that's the big one.
And from that part let's talk alittle bit about TAPS class.
Let's explain what TAPS is.
It may go by a different namebased on what branch of military
you were in or something, butfor those who don't know, taps
(12:52):
class stands for transitionassistance program, and that is
the class that you have to gothrough when you get towards the
end of your military career.
So this is the part where youlearn how to transition back
into civilian life.
It teaches you all kinds ofthings.
(13:14):
For my experience personally, wehad a representative come in
from the Department of Labor.
They taught us how to useLinkedIn and set up a LinkedIn
account so we couldprofessionally network on social
media.
They taught us how to buildresumes, how to write them.
The important terms andeverything that we needed to
(13:36):
know go from there.
So that was, for the most part,a very short description of my
experience.
Did you have any other specificexperiences in your TAPS class?
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Kind of So.
Like I stated earlier, my TAPSor SFL, soldier for Life is.
They are basically going on how, once you leave the service,
you are considered an ambassadorfor the US military, So
whatever you do basicallyreflects on the service once
you're out.
They also went over collegeapplications programs that are
(14:15):
available to the service membersand to the family members after
transitioning out, trying togive us all kinds of information
and sources for after service.
Of course, it depends on howprepared your instructors are.
My instructors were.
They tried their hardest, butwhen you're on a post that's
(14:38):
closing down and you're stuck ina building that has no internet
capabilities and majority ofthe classes are via internet, it
doesn't really work out toowell.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
That would have been
an interesting paradigm.
You know, you're in the middleof getting out and the base
you're on is shutting down.
That would have beeninteresting.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Ah, such a promise.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
But you know that
brings up, you know,
transitioning from the TAPSclass.
Initially, the thought thatcame to my mind was I mean, i
guess it's hard to explain itwithout just jumping right in,
but what would you say aboutyour transition specific to your
(15:24):
experiences with what you'velost?
So I'll start by saying this Ilearned this shortly after I got
out, ironically in the collegecourses that I mentioned earlier
.
But back in the 20th centurythere was a well-known
(15:47):
psychologist by the name ofAbraham Maslow.
Some may be very familiar withhis hierarchy of needs.
I'll go over that here in justa minute.
So what Abraham Maslow did washe wrote a paper in 1943 titled
A Theory of Human Motivation,and it was published in the
(16:07):
Psychological Review Journal.
That was probably one of hismost defining moments.
He is well known for hishierarchy of needs because it
really hits the nail on the headas to an individual and exactly
(16:30):
how they experience life.
The questions that hishierarchy of needs answered is
what are we really after?
What are we long for?
Who, rather, excuse me, how dowe arrange the priorities in
giving due attention to thethings that matter first?
(16:50):
And what was unique that cameto my mind was that the needs
that the military provided youactually satisfy the first two
levels of Maslow's hierarchy.
So for those of us old enoughto remember the food pyramid and
learning that in school, Idon't know if they teach that
(17:11):
anymore.
Oh, they do, but I think it's inthe form of a plate now.
It's healthy portions orsomething, and instead of a food
pyramid it's a plate Likeretoddlers.
Kind of like a pie chart Theyuse the plate as a pie chart.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Retoddlers.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Good Lord, but you
know, in a pyramid you first
initially start with yourphysiological needs.
So this level, think of it asthe basics Your need to breathe,
food, water, shelter, clothing,sleep These are the things that
(17:50):
you physiologically need inorder to maintain your health.
The next level is your safetyand security.
So think of things like yourhealth, employment, your
property, your home, family andsocial ability.
So if you think about thesethings, i want to raise specific
(18:14):
attention to our combinedmedical experience, because in
the military there's no suchthing as health insurance.
I mean, i guess there isbecause there's tri-care and
there's different.
You know that was more so in thebackground, though and as an
active duty corpsman, I neverreally dealt with any of that.
(18:36):
It was done for us But it wasdone for us, But there was a
structure that supported thataspect of it.
but I digress.
So, anyway, our day-to-day lives, where, as civilians, you know,
we get a job and we get healthinsurance, and that's how it
works In the military.
That's not how it worked.
It became necessary forday-to-day life.
(18:58):
I guess, you know, it was kindof out of sight, out of mind.
But when you get to that pointof transition, when you're
getting out of the military,it's one of the things that
comes up to your mind where, ohmy gosh, i'm leaving the
military, i no longer havehealth coverage.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Life insurance.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Right.
So you know, and I'll givemyself as an example despite
that, i didn't need to.
I elected to get my wisdomteeth removed when I was still
on active duty because theyweren't giving me any problems
and I never.
Most Navy veterans will tellyou that they got their wisdoms
(19:38):
removed in boot camp.
I did not.
My wisdoms were unique.
When they did the X-rays, theywere nowhere near causing me any
issues, so they just left minealone And so I didn't need to
remove them.
Fast forward four and a halfyears and I'm about to get out
of the Navy and I still wasn'thaving any issues.
(19:59):
But I still elected to get themremoved because, god forbid, it
would be my luck if I did nothave bad luck.
I'd have no luck at all.
So if I would have gotten outwith my wisdoms, i guarantee you
I would have had an issue andhad to get it fixed, and I don't
have dental insurance, you know.
So something to think about onthat.
(20:20):
So, but that's just one exampleof many right?
So we make friends all over theworld, while we are uniquely
accustomed to saying goodbye toour friends every two to three
years when we each do a PCS move.
And for those who don'tunderstand a PCS that is a
permanent change of station.
(20:41):
So you change your duty stationfrom wherever you were to
wherever you're going, and so mytransition from the hospital in
Maryland, in Bethesda, maryland, was a PCS move to the clinic
in Hawaii, naval Health Clinic,hawaii.
So but going back on track here,those are the first two levels
(21:02):
of Maslow's hierarchy And theyare the physical and material
needs of an individual in orderto maintain their life, maintain
their lifestyle.
Moving up from there goes intothe realm of the psychological
and spiritual needs.
So the next level up is loveand belonging.
(21:22):
Some of the things in thislevel, such as friendship,
family intimacy and a sense ofconnection some of those as well
are covered in your militaryservice, especially if you're a
higher ranking enlisted member.
You go a longer period of timein the military but don't quite
(21:44):
make it to the 20 yearretirement mark.
Maybe you have started a familyand moved off base and have
those things, but now you'removing to not having those, not
having the health insurance foryour family, not having that
support underneath you.
(22:04):
So that's the third level.
The fourth level is self esteem, things like confidence,
achievement, respect of others,the need to be a unique
individual.
So, as I said earlier, we inboot camp we are.
Our individualism is torn downand rebuilt back up in a
teamwork aspect, while that isvery true for the majority
(22:27):
experience in the military.
I mean, what do you think,krista?
I mean it's, you're still anindividual, you're not a
mindless machine.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
I think it's easier
for the younger service members
who are entering to transition,compared to someone who's
already in their thirties, to gofrom a single person mindset to
group mindset.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Right, right.
And so when you're thinking ofthe need to be a unique
individual, you know, unlessyou're deployed, i would argue
for the most part I think it's,it's pretty normal life.
I mean, you're not on the clock24 seven there.
You do have liberty, you knowNavy calls it Liberty time, but
(23:13):
you're free time after work, youclock out, you go to the gym,
you go out to eat, you know, anddepending on where you are and
the needs of your command thatyou're assigned to, i had
weekends off for the most part,unless I had to pull duty, and
that was only, if I recallcorrectly, one weekend a month.
(23:34):
But that differs.
Everybody's individual, youknow, experience differs, i
think.
But finalizing this hierarchyof needs with the final step
which is self-actualization, sothink of things like morality,
creativity, spontaneity,acceptance, experience of the
(23:57):
experience of purpose as anindividual, what you are
destined to do.
You know your individualmeaning and your inner potential
.
So I would argue I shouldn'tsay the word argue, but I would
say not knowing what you want tobe when you grow up.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Essentially what you
want to be when you're a
civilian.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Exactly, is
essentially what that
self-actualization is all about.
So Maslow argued that thesewere core to an individual's
personality, and Maslow himselfhe lived from 1908 until 1970.
Living to your full potentialand becoming who we really are
(24:40):
on the inside is a verydifficult thing to do.
When we get to the point wherewe get out of the military and
do that full transition, we'rethinking about what we want to
be when we grow up, despite thefact that we are in our mid-20s.
Typically at this point, themajority of us correct me if I'm
(25:01):
wrong, krista what age wouldyou say most get out of the
military?
I would say it's about mid-20s.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I'd say mid to late
20s.
Most service members do theirfour years or six years and call
it quits.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Okay, yeah, i would
agree with that, and you have to
understand that the paradigmabout this is you're in your mid
to late 20s The people you wentto high school with.
They've already gone to college.
They've probably purchased thefirst house.
They've probably alreadystarted a family.
(25:36):
By this point, your averageveteran is behind the curve, and
that was something I struggledwith with my mental health was I
saw all these people that Iwent to high school with.
I knew a guy who I went to highschool with, who rose the ranks
at FedEx and ended up being insales at FedEx.
(25:58):
I was incredibly proud of himto see how he's climbed that
ladder.
But here I am, at 25 years old,not having achieved anything so
much as a college certificate.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
My experience was a
little different.
I noticed that most of myfriends from high school they
had completed college, they hada job, they had families, but
they are still stuck in the samemind frame, especially if they
had never really left their town, much less their state.
Versus most of the servicemembers that I met, their minds
(26:39):
are expanded.
They understand the biggerpicture in a lot of different
things.
They've experienced foreigncountries they've experienced
walking on foreign soil.
They may be behind when it comesto debt or owning a home or
having the college experience,but unfortunately that's the
(27:01):
difference.
Civilians they've started ontheir life, but they're still in
the same mind frame.
Service members they can see amuch larger, bigger picture.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Sometimes I think
about the game of life.
Remember the board game.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I love that game.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Yeah, so remember at
the beginning of the game of
life where you have to choose toeither go directly towards a
career or go to college.
Thinking about that game.
Going directly to a career iskind of like doing the long way
around, right So, where ourfriends would go to college and
(27:37):
do all of that.
We go to college and it's not ahead start, it's not a jump
start.
So it reminds me so much ofthat paradigm of some of us.
Do a head start In the boardgame.
It's go to college, get a headstart.
In our experience we joined themilitary and got a head start
(28:02):
because we went directly to theexperiences rather than college
and learned all that stuff.
I mean, there's probably morepeople in the military who have
shot major weapons systems,tanks, missile launchers, things
of that nature, depending onwhat they did for a job while
(28:24):
they were in Things that theirpeers at high school could only
dream of doing.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yeah, i know most of
my high school peers never left
the state, much less the country.
Meanwhile, i've been to atleast three foreign countries.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
And that, speaking of
which, that was something that
I have learned is that, in thepersona of many colleges around
the country, there is a push forstudents to learn specific
things, such as my collegecalled it diversity in society.
They wanted to put a spotlighton differences of culture and
(29:01):
because I was a military veteranwho had been on a deployment
and have seen other countries, ididn't have to take that class.
So yeah, and that was thecaveat at my college was, if
you're a military veteranwithout a deployment, you'd
(29:22):
still have to take the class.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
That suckers, so
that's what I thought too.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Now, that might be
different from from the college
to college.
That's obviously not, you know,set in stone anywhere that I
know of.
But that was interesting.
And now that you mention it, ijust want to mention that my
deployment took me to sevendifferent countries.
I've been to Djibouti, bahrain,kuwait, greece, italy and
(29:55):
Portugal.
That's six, i'm sorry.
So, yeah, i've been to sixdifferent countries.
On that deployment We were togo to, there was a potential
chance that I could have gone tothe Seychelles.
It ended up not happening.
So, anyway, my military servicecrosses, you know, two
hemispheres in six differentcountries, and man.
(30:16):
I want to go and see thosecountries again.
You know, especially Italy.
I love Italy, italy isbeautiful.
The old marketing slogan of theNavy was accelerate your life.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
I remember those
badass commercials, you know,
and I'm like oh yeah, that wasfrom what The mid 2000s, yeah,
mid 2000s, oh memories I want todo?
Speaker 2 (30:37):
accelerate my life,
you know.
So I graduate high school in2009 and end up joining the Navy
directly out of school.
So, but my experience was alittle bit different too.
Jumping back to my introductionreal quick, because I forgot
something here.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
I have at it.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
You know I during my
high school time I was actually
a member of the United StatesNaval Sea Cadet Corps.
For those of you who don't knowand who actually might be
interested, i'm giving a.
This is not a sponsored ad oranything, but I am a former Sea
Cadet And I'm a proud formerC-Cadet.
It is an amazing program And ifyou have any youngsters between
(31:18):
the ages of 10 and 17 who wantto get a taste of military life
with no requirement to serve inthe military afterwards,
c-cadets is a really greatprogram.
I digress from my little plugthere.
I love the C-Cadets.
I'll always support them.
That was so awesome.
(31:39):
So anyway, as a former C-Cadet,a perk to the program was that
after boot camp I wasmeritoriously promoted to E3.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Ooh fancy.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
So I came into the
Navy as an E3 hospitalman And so
it was quite the experience Andso because of that prior
experience it was pretty much inset in stone where I was going.
At that point in time I think Igraduated high school with a
(32:16):
2.16 GPA.
I am not bragging, i promise.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
But the reality was I
just hated high school.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
I hated it.
It was not something I wasinterested in, i just wanted to
move on, so there was no way Iwas going to college right away.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Yeah, I feel like it.
I think I barely graduated bythe skin of my teeth.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Yeah, so we went.
Sounds like we both wentdirectly to the military after
high school.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
The same month I
turned 18 and graduated high
school.
I was in basic.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Yeah, so I had to
wait a little bit of time in the
delayed entry.
But from my experience, inaddition to that, I am third
generation Navy, So mygrandfather was a machinist mate
.
My excuse me, my father was amachinist mate, My grandfather
was a gunner's mate in the NavyAnd my grandfather was World War
(33:08):
II veteran.
So a lot of pride in patriotism, the reasons for why I joined
and that I hated school and Ididn't want to go.
But those are the main reasonsfor me And because of my
experience in the Sea Cadets,which, now that I think about it
, will be an episode in a futurepodcast.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Wouldn't be a bad
idea.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Excuse me, in a
future podcast, it's going to be
this podcast, not a futurepodcast, it's going to be this
one.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Just not this episode
.
Right, just not this episode.
So stay tuned.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
That'll be upcoming
here pretty soon, but anyway.
so what are you in closing?
Speaker 3 (33:47):
do you have any
specific things that you want to
call out that maybe I haven'tgone over, or Well, you
mentioned a lot about the TAPprogram but you didn't actually
mention too much actuallyexiting the service.
So the SFL TAP tries to prepareyou the best it can about life
(34:09):
after service, how you can getall these benefits and connect
to these programs, But it stilldoesn't really prepare you for
leaving the service.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
As.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
I went from structure
, comradeship, all that to
suddenly gone.
I landed stateside from SouthKorea And suddenly I had no one
to report to, which was thefirst time for me as an inner.
I was an adult, 31 years old,and never been fully in charge
(34:44):
of myself.
That was scary, just shocking.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
That was scary.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
So I went from having
everything provided to me,
because the service treats youlike a kid.
They give you housing, theygive you money for food, they
give you health care, healthinsurance, and all of it stops.
You are on your own And forsomeone who joined the service
straight out of high school noteven a month of being 18, it was
(35:09):
shocking.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
And you know
something Now that you say that.
What's interesting is I've hadthis conversation I couldn't
tell you countless times withfriends and family.
You hear a lot about peopleenlisting in the military and
getting sign on bonuses,enlistment bonuses like the
assholes.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yeah, yeah, not
everybody gets those, by the way
.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yeah not everyone
Entirely depends on if they need
you in that specific role.
But I could tell you HospitalCorman, no, never, never get
those.
Unless you're in specificdisciplines.
But the ideas that we came upwith some of my friends and I
came up with was sure, keepenlistment bonuses.
(35:49):
I mean, i'm not saying thatthere's not a place for those,
but an interesting idea that,hey, department of Defense, if
you're out there listening I'mgoing to give you.
I'm going to throw you a bonehere.
How about post-enlistmentbonuses?
Give $10,000 or $20,000post-enlistment bonus If that
(36:10):
person and give it to him in aform of an investment treasury
bond or a.
CD or something.
Let it accrue interest overtime.
If they decide to re-enlist acouple of times or even retire,
it doesn't matter, because, atthe end of the day, what that
money can do, especially afterit has matured over time.
(36:34):
A person in our shoes, for you,at 31 years old and not having
anything, if you would have hada $25,000 post-enlistment bonus,
guess what?
That's a pretty good, sizabledown payment on a house.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Or a down payment for
an apartment to get you
immediately on your feet again.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Savings until you
find a job.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Right, if you don't
want to do that, maybe allow us
to cash in our benefits.
Hey, i need some money rightnow.
Give me the equivalent of twomonths of my GI bill in cash so
I can go get an apartment or buya car.
I mean, the possibilities andthe reasons for it are endless.
(37:23):
But those are just some ideas.
Like when we get out of themilitary, the transition isn't
really a transition, it's justabrupt, it stops.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
It stops everything,
everything is done, everything.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
The curtain is called
The fat lady has sung And
you're done, we're shoved out ofthe plane.
And I mean that's going to getinto a topic that we can cover
in another episode of how muchwe miss military service
afterwards.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Like you, know Some
of the things, some of the
things, some of the things, someof the things.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Not all of it.
We'll talk about that inanother episode too, But
especially the camaraderie.
though We get transitioned outeither voluntarily, like we want
to get out, or involuntary.
Some of us get injured and wehave to leave service.
We're no longer able to deploy,we're no longer able to serve
our country in that way.
That's rough, super rough Andagain a topic for another
(38:20):
episode, but to be forciblyshoved out of the military.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
With very little time
to plan.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Very little time to
plan.
Even worse if you have a wifeand a kid.
Oh yeah, if you've got family,if you've got.
Whatever the case might be,we're definitely going to be
talking about those topics at alater time And as we transition
to the close here, krista, iwant to highlight some of the
episodes.
I'm just going to name off afew.
(38:48):
And how about you name off afew And just give them a taste
of what's coming?
Speaker 3 (38:53):
OK, OK.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
All right, so
upcoming here.
On the next episode we'reprobably going to have Krista
again.
She's going to discuss theexperiences of women veterans
and some of the uniquechallenges that they face.
We're going to discuss wartrauma, ptsd, mental health and
the impact of that on veteransand their families, and also how
(39:19):
that sometimes connects toindividuals who are still on
active duty who have had severalcombat deployments and maybe
physically are still able toserve, but mentally are in a
very dark place and what thatmight look like.
we're going to discuss the roleof community support and
advocacy and helping us accessresources and support services,
(39:43):
because I can guarantee you thatyour average veteran, if you
pulled them, i would argue thatthey probably wouldn't be able
to tell you heads or tails whatservices are out there.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Uh-huh, let's see, we
could also.
We're also going to go over thehistory of veterans' rights and
the evolution of veterans'services and support programs,
um the experiences of disabledveterans specifically, and the
challenges they face inaccessing healthcare and other
benefits.
That one's a big one.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
The impact of
military service on mental
health and well-being and theimportance of addressing mental
health needs for veterans,specifically addressing them.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Awesome.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Not just talking
about it, but making sure that
what is discussed actuallyhappens.
The follow-through.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Right.
The follow-through is important.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
You can throw all
kinds of darts at the wall, but
if they fall down nothinghappens.
You've got to get them to stick.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
You could talk all
you want, but if there's no
action made, then it doesnothing.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Right, absolutely,
and we're going to have an
entire series called Reflections, where I'm going to do personal
interviews of veterans, acomplete, full, deep dive into
their enlistment or, if theperson is an officer, you know,
i'm going to talk to them aboutthat, so that'll be a separate
(41:03):
series within Soup Sandwich as apodcast.
We're going to have a seriescalled Reflections, um, and then
, finally, we're going to talkabout experiences of veterans in
different conflicts from WorldWar II, vietnam, the Gulf War,
iraq and Afghanistan and howtheir experiences differ, the
role that family and caregiversplay in supporting veterans and
(41:25):
helping them navigate thetransition And, finally, some
experiences of homeless andat-risk veterans and the efforts
that the VA has been doing toaddress homelessness among
veterans.
I've heard some good thingsabout that, actually, so I'm
looking forward to that one tosee our brothers and sisters who
are lost.
We need to make sure that wehelp them.
(41:47):
But that's going to be it forus today.
Thank you for joining us again.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
My name is Brent, i'm
Krista.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
And we're going to be
back again soon, very, very
shortly.
We're looking forward to it.
Thank you for joining us.
Thank you so much.
Talk to you soon.
Bye-bye.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Thank you for joining
us at Soup Sandwich, a podcast
that explores the complex andcompelling world of veterans in
the United States.
Through interviews withveterans themselves, military
experts and advocates will divedeep into the issues that matter
most to this community, frommental health and employment to
the history of the US military,the future of military service
(42:23):
and everything in between.
Whether you're a veteranyourself, a spouse or family
member of a veteran, or simplyinterested in learning more
about this community, thispodcast is for you.
So come with us on a journeyinto the heart of the veteran
experience and discover thestories, struggles and triumphs
that have shaped our nation'sbrave after they've returned
(42:44):
home.